GT40’s – the beginning

Ford GT40

The Ford GT40 was to become arguably the greatest Sports Racing Car of all time, to be compared to the 300SLR Mercedes, Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, Bentley Speed Six or Alfa Romeo 8C. What is less known is the tortured beginnings that this car had with many changes and iterations needed before success was attained and the many variants that were necessary to keep it competitive over 5 years from 1965 – 1969. The fact it won 4 Le Mans in three completely different formats was testament to the initial idea and the sheer force of those involved.

Driving these cars were some of the best drivers of all time and included many Formula 1 champions such as Hulme, Rindt, Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Clark and more. Many Le Mans winners also drove and the team managers and crews were a who’s who of racing talents. Looking back there is no more evocative image than the three GT40’s crossing the line at Le Mans in 1966 or the beautiful Gulf GT40’s of 1968 and 1969.

In this treatise I have tried to provide an overall history of the Ford GT40 by discussing in depth the major races contested by the official GT40 racing teams, FAV, Shelby, Holman & Moody, Alan Mann, Gulf et al. My rationale was to compare the performances of these entries on a race by race basis, showing where they were successful and where they weren’t. I certainly did not want to gloss over their faults, since in 1964 and 1965 there were many faults.

Finally I have tried with limited accuracy to give an overall guide to the status of the individual Ford built cars today. I have tried to include any cars that have claim to some kind of provenance. When considering that information please do not deem it to be accurate, it is merely a guide, and a rough one at that. With GT40’s values between US$2 million and US$20 million it could be said that many so called lost cars will still be discovered, some of which may actually contain Ford/ Abbey Panels etc parts.

Respect and thanks must surely go to Ronnie Spain, may your next book come sooner rather than later, who must be considered a god when it comes to GT40’s. Further thanks must go to whoever came up with http://www.GT40s.com which is a wonderful site for all things GT40.

1960 – 1963 – Henry goes in search of a legacy

Henry Ford had since 1960 wanted to win Le Mans and looked for ways to complete what could have been a fitting legacy. Acknowledging the lack of ability of the Ford Motor Company (FoMoCo) and the American racing fraternity, Cunningham had tried and given up, Ford knew he had to look elsewhere. An approach to a top European racing manufacturer appeared the logical path and Henry Ford decided to approach Ferrari.

At the start of 1963 it was agreed by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca that they would make overtures to Ferrari after word got out via Ford Germany that Ferrari would be interested in a merger. In April Phil Paradise, then head of Ford Italy was sent to make the approach to Enzo and the intial idea was for two separate companies. One, Ford – Ferrari would make the road cars that would be sold as Ferrari’s and the other, Ferrari – Ford would make the Sports racing and Grand Prix cars.

Enzo was concerned that any independence would disappear with Fords beauracracy taking over, a potentially valid concern. Further concerns were raised about Fords ability to focus efforts on Ferrari’s racing and conflicts from their continual support of Shelby. Other concerns included Fords reluctance to get involved in the 1.5 Litre era of Formula 1.

Conincidentally, Fiat also started to make overtures to Enzo, offering financial backing and continued full independence which rather suited Enzo’s cultural thinking.

By early May FoMoCo was firmly told that no further negotiations would take place and they literally returned to Detroit to lick their wounds and consider options. Thus the intial idea behind building their own Le Mans contender was born. Some consider that Henry Ford was annoyed or that the real reason was that Ferrari couldn’t build a competing car for Indianapolis but anything further is hearsay. Whatever the reason for its being, the greatest sports racer of the late 1960’s was born.

After being rejected by Ferrari, Iacocca instantly got to work, setting up an independent group, Ford Advanced Vehicle (Special vehicle operations) in the UK. The power unit was also chosen, the new Indy 256 Cui engine loosely based on the Fairlane V8 was selected for the role. Roy Lunn was seconded to the project early-on, Lunn was the designer of the Mustang 1 in 1962 which was a very close approximation to the eventual layout of the GT40.

FoMoCo held discussions with Lotus, Cooper and Lola about building chassis and providing racing expertise. Lotus was an initial frontrunner but was not chosen due to the overwhelming feeling that they were stretched running their Formula 1 team, let alone adding the Sports racing team, Cooper was also dropped due to their lack of experience in Sports car racing and their declining Formula 1 performances. Lola had in 1963 raced at Le Mans with some success despite not finishing and that led Ford to approach Eric Broadley, then owner and chief designer of Lola to help them with the project that would become the GT40.

It must be noted that the Lola Mark IV used a Ford 289 Cui. Engine and was similar in layout to the Mustang 1 concept and these facts must have been noticed by Ford management.

1963 – 1964 – Lola Mark VI

The car that was to be the basis for the GT40, the Lola Mark VI, was designed in 1962/1963 using a monococue chassis as its basis, with inspiration to Colin Chapman’s then dominating Formula 1 car, the Lotus 25. The Ford 289Cui engine and gearbox were bolted directly directly to the chassis with the rear suspension being bolted to the transmission. The inital chassis was steel, with the following two made of aluminium. The body designed was a very streamlined coupe.

The vehicle made its debut at the Daily Express meeting and driven by Maggs it finished 5th. Next up was the Nurburgring 1000Km where it retired with wheel nut issues. The second Mark VI Lola was ready for Le Mans scrutineering and other issues, not least gearing that was far too short, put the Lola at a severe disadvantage, however a very strong performance in the race had the car up 5th at one point before retiring with gearbox failure.

By this point the second and third cars had been built and one was sold to Japan, never to be raced, and the other had been sold to John Mecom. The Mecom car was fitted with a Chevrolet engine and raced widely in the USA. This was very embarassing for Ford who now considered the Lola Mark VI “their” car and they attempted to buy it back, which Mecom refused.

The three Lola Mark 6 (in brief)

#LGT/P – Prototype Mark 6 Lola

1963 – Daily Express Trophy – Maggs 5th

Nurburgring 1000KM – Maggs/ Olthoff Retired

1963 – Ford Motor Co. UK

1965 – Allen Grant UK (2009)

#LGT/1 – Lola Mark 6

1963 – Le Mans – Hobbs/ Attwood – Accident/ Retired

Ford UK for GT40 testing

Stored

2000 – Restored and sold

2001 – Japan

#LGT/3 – Lola Mark 6

1963 – Le Mans – Love/ Maggs Retired

Brands Hatch Guards Trophy – Pabst Retired

Chevrolet engine fitted

Nassau Speed week – Pabst 1st

1964 – Sebring 12 Hours Pabst/ Hansgen Retired

Crashed severely at Riverside

?? – Chuck Haines

Restored

1988 – Peter Kaus Germany

2006 – Bonhams Goodwood SOLD at UKP364,000

2006 – Unknown

Restored by Hall & Hall

2011 – offered by Hall & Hall

1963 – Development begins

June 1963 found a party of Roy Lunn, Carol Shelby and Ray Geddes travelling to Le Mans and then the UK to check out facilities and potential partners and initial discussions with Colin Chapman were explored. The Ford party soon realised that Chapman would not always take direction well and after meeting Eric Broadley found they had someone that could work within the corporate structure. Broadley quickly agreed to come on board, signing a 1 year contract and FoMoCo/ FAV purchased the two Lola Mark 6 that were still owned.

John Wyer, the ex. Aston Martin team manager was also hired for 3 years, to run the FAV racing team and to eventually develop a road going version of the new car. Meanwhile in the USA much design work had taken place with Len Bailey, Roy Lunn and others transferred to the UK to work in Broadley’s factory in Bromley, Kent.

The new group quickly realised they needed their own space. Slough, very close to Heathrow airport was chosen. This location was incidentally very convenient, the airport being vital for expediential egress to and from racing internationally. One of the Lola’s was developed with proposed suspension changes planned for the new vehicle and tested at Goodwood and later Monza. An eventual mockup was tested in the FAV USA windtunnel and adjusted until a deisgn was finalised.

A limiting factor was the windtunnel was limited to a maximum 125 MPH simulation, the resulting design limitations only becoming clear when actual racing commenced in 1964.

On the 16th of March 1964 the first Abbey Panels monococque chassis was delivered to FAV in Slough for building up as the GT prototype. 15 days later the prototype Ford GT was wheeled out to meet the press on the 1st of April, one can only imagine the excitement that this new car would have created. The car was then flown to New York where it was displayed in the Essex Hotel to the American media.

Finally, on the 3rd of April back at Slough, the first GT,chassis GT/101, underwent race preparation before testing on the 8th of April. The second car was completed by the 8th of April and both were tested at Silverstone on the 16th before being shipped to Le Mans for the trials on the 18th & 19th of April.

1964 – The genesis

The Team

FAV Manager

John Wyer (Team Manager, Aston Martin – 1959 Le Mans winner)

Drivers

Richard Attwood (1970 Le Mans winner)

Richie Ginther

Masten Gregory (1965 Le Mans winner)

Phil Hill (1961 Formula 1 Champion, 1958, 1961 & 1962 Le Mans winner

Bruce McLaren (1966 Le Mans winner)

Roy Salvadori (1959 Le Mans winner)

Jo Schlesser

With John Wyer as manager and a driver team including the winner’s of 7 Le Mans titles between them, the race team was a brilliant blend of speed and maturity. Big things were expected and this was compounded by the media both sought and unsought with many predicting the mix of Ford’s money, Broadleys ability and the driving ability would bring instant success, unfortunately fate is never so kind.

Early season (Pre Nurburgring)

The First round of the 1964 World Sportscar Chamionship was the Daytona 2000KM held on the 16th of February contested by Ferrari with Chinetti entering the latest spec. 250 GTO/64 for Pedro Rodriguez and Phill Hilland a 250 GTO/ LMB backed by 4 other privately entered 250 GTO’s. Against these were the three Shelby entered Cobra’s and the first ever entry of a Shelby Daytona Coupe which had pole. The usual entry of GT’s was headed by the Porsche 356 2000GS/GT and three Abarth – Porsche, various Triumph TR3’s and 4’s, various Corvettes, MG’s and a Morgan Plus 4 AND TWO VOLVO 1800S’. The Cobra Daytona coupe led from pole with the 250 GTO/64 in second although somewhat slower than the Daytona, and fell into a wait and see mode.

Enlivened by Rodriguez’s tyre exploding mid race and the Daytona’s rear axle stiffening up. Eventually the Daytona Coupe was being refuelled when fuel spilled onto the exhaust causing the car to self – imolliate. All of this left the Rodriguez/ Hill GTO/64 with a fairly safe 4 lap lead over two other GTO’s, another Shelby Cobra a fourth GTO and the Barth/ Linge Porsche GS/GT winning GT 2000.

The second round, the Sebring 12 Hours was held on the 21st of March and featured the works Ferrari P cars with the official entry of 2 275P’s for Parkes/ Maglioli and Scarfiotti/ Vaccarella and the 330P for Surtees/ Bandini, complented by the Ronnie Hoare 330P entry for Hill/ Bonnier and the NART 330P entry for Rodriguez/ Fulp, other Ferrari entries 2 250 GTO/64’s, 2 GTO’s and the prototype 250LM. The Shelby entry was of 3 of the newest Roadsters, the Daytona Coupe and a 427 Cui Road spec Mark 2 Roadster backed by six other Cobra’s. Other entries included three Corvette Grand Sports (the ultimate Corvette), the Lola GT (the forerunner to the GT40), the Iso Rivolta, two of the GS/ GT Porsche’s and 5 904 GTS p –cars. Behind these were the usual tiddlers and GT’s from Lotus Cortina’s to Austin – Healeys. The Surtees 330P lead off pole from Rodriguez, Hill and Parkes with Gurney the highest ranked Shelby Cobra. Rodriguez was the first to drop with a broken gearbox, the 250LM also out after catching fire, the three Cobra’s and the two Grand Sports were tailing the Ferrari’s although somewhat slower. Graham Hill had his gearbox explode and then Surtees had the underpan come loose and spent much time having it repaired and Scarfiotti had his F-car’s lights go out, literally. This left the Parkes/ Maglioli 275P in the lead and they were never challenged, winning from Scarfiotti/ Vaccarella and Surtees/ Bandini. Fourth was Holbert/ McDonald in the Daytona Coupe, 5th Bondurant/ Spencer and Schlesser/ Hill in Cobra’s, Piper/ Gammino in a 250 GTO/64, 8th Keck/ Scott in a Cobra and 9th and taking out Proto/GT3000 was Underwood/ Cunningham in a Porsche 904GTS.

FAV arrived at Le Mans on the 18th of April with high hopes for the new GT40. Unfortunately the hopes were not to last, both Schlesser and Salvadori finding the high speed handling extremely diffiocult. The aerodynamic issues were causing the cars to lighten on the Mulsanne straight, airflow causing the cars to suffer from lift. On the 18th Jo Schlesser was approaching the kink and lost GT/101 which was wrecked in the eventual crash. GT/102 was crashed by Salvadori on the 19th with only superficial damage but this brought the Le Mans trials to a premature end. Sobering must have been the reaction to the time recorded by both cars when the Ferrari’s were running 3 minute 40’s.

The next round of the World Sportscar Championship was the Targa Florio held on the 26th of April 1964, Porsche entering 6 cars, 1 718RS, 2 904GTS, 1 904/8, 1 GS/GT and 5 customer Porsche’s for good measure. Ferrari entered 2 semi – works 250 GTO/64’s, and there were 4 private GTO’s. Shelby entered no less than 5 Cobra’s, many for Americans who must have wondered why they had agreed to sign up for the trip. Other entries were the appropriate Alfa TZ’s and the usual assortment of mad Italian exotica including 2 ATS 2500GT’s, Osca’s, Alfa SZ’s, old Ferraris and Maseratis. The race started with the usual early retirements, the Porsche 718RS of Bonnier retiring on Lap 2, joined on Lap 5 by Bulgari/ Grana breaking their Porsche 904GTS Chassis, on lap 6 by Gregory/ Ireland crashing and on Lap 8 by the Cobra of Hill/ Bondurant breaking their suspension. The usual Targa Florio attrition left the Pucci/ Davis 904GTS in the lead at the flag, Balzarini/ Linge 2nd in their 904GTS and the Alfa TZ of Bussinello/ Todaro in 3rd, the leading Ferrari was Taramazzo/ Ferlaino in their 250 GTO/64 in 5th and the leading Shelby Cobra the Gurney/ Grant car in 8th.

Following the Targa Florio on the 17th of May the Spa Francorchamps 500KM was the 4th round of the Championship and was run for GT cars. Major entries were the 7 Ferrari 250’s and 4 250 GTO/64’s and against them was the three Cobra roadsters and the Daytona Coupe, with two Aston Martin DP214 entries adding colour. The 2 litre class was as expected a Porsche 904GTS walkover 9 entered. The race quickly turned into a Ferrari procession with first Piper and then Parkes leading the field comfortably. The closest Cdobra was the 8th place car of Bondurant. Phil Hill in the Dayotna Coupe was slowed by a fuel starvation problem but after sorting that managed to scythe through the field although later troubles dropped him back. Parkes dominated the later stages and comfortably won from Guichet and Bandini all in “private” 250 GTO/64’s.

31/5/1964 – Nurburgring 1000KM

A full entry list was reached for the Nurburgring 1000KM with a large number of teams entering all of the World Sportscar championship and other teams using it as a training run for the Le Mans 24 Hours. The sole GT40 entered had some small modifications from the spec. used at the Le Mans trials with the driving lights moved to a position above the nose.

Qualifying found the GT40 splitting the Ferrari’s in second place with a very competitive time and showed the pace of the Prototype/ GT’s compared to the standard GT’s. Two drivers were killed in practice, Brian Hetreed in the Aston Martin after suffering a tyre explosion and crashing mear Bergwerk and Rudolf Moser when he crashed his Porsche 904 near the end of the main straight. Further accidents took out 6 other race entrants.

Starting grid

1 – J. Surtees/ L. Bandini 2 – P. Hill/ B. McLaren

Ferrari 275P (0822) Ford GT40 (GT102)

8:57:9 9:04:7

3 – L. Scarfiotti/ N. Vaccarella 4 – J. Bonnier/ R. Ginther

Ferrari 275P (0820) Porsche 904/8 (#009)

9:05:9 9:08:8

5 – G. Hill/ I. Ireland 6 – C. Davis/ E. Barth

Ferrari 275P Porsche 904/8 (#008)

9:09:9 9:13:2

7 – T. Hitchcock/ G. Thiel 8 – J. Blaton/ P. Dumay

Shelby Cobra (#CSX2155) Ferrari 250LM (#5843)

9:29:4 9:30:3

9 – U. Maglioli/ J. Rindt 10 – M. Parkes/ J. Guichet

Ferrari 250LM (#5909) Ferrari 250 GTO/64 (#5573)

9:31:4 9:32:5

The race started dry, although as ever at the Nordschlieife, rain wasn’t far away. Leading away was Surtees in the leading 275P with Davis’ Porsche in second and the GT40 in third. Phil Hill soon took 2nd in the GT40 and Graham Hill got hid Ferrari into 3rd.Behind them Parkes had the works GTO/64 up into the lead of GT 3000, with a safe distance between him and the first of the Cobra’s. Graham Hill eventually passed both the GT40 and then Scarfiotti’s Ferrari and the two Ferrari’s battled for many laps. Piper in his GTO also moved up through the field to challenge Parkes’ GTO/64.

Following the first round of pitstops McLaren (in for Hill) went out in third place in the GT40 only to return one lap later with a broken radius arm, causing the cars retirement. At this point the race settled into a 1-2-3 for Ferrari with Vaccarella (in for Scarfiotti) leading Bandini (in for Surtees) and Ireland (in for Hill). The situation was not last with Ireland’s rather brisk driving causing him to run out of fuel out on the circuit and after some rather spurious refuelling out on the track and handing over to Hill, the car being black flagged one lap later. In the last section of the race Surtees had a hub shear putting him out of the race and leaving Scarfiotti/ Vaccarella with a commanding lead over the second placed Parkes/ Guichet.

Being the Nurburgring the last part of the race had not just rain, but a full storm which slowed the leaders enough to allow the much delayed Bonnier to make it up to fifth while everyone around him went into defence modes. Following the race the GT40 entered (#GT102) was taken back to Slough where all of welds throughout the car where strengthened significantly.

The Le Mans 24 Hour race, the most important race of the season, was held on the 21st and 22nd of June. The race saw many new entrants, especially in the smaller categories, and peak entries from Porsche (6 904’s and 2 904/8’s), Ferrari’s (4 250 GTO’s, 2 250LM’s, 6 P car’s) and Ford (3 GT40’s). Ford also had 2 Shelby Dayona Coupe’s entered by Carrol Shelby and Briggs Cunningham and 2 standard Cobra Roadster’s. Throughout practice it looked likely to be yet another Ferrari benefit, they had one 5 of the last 6 Le Mans races, with only the GT40’s standing in their way, and they had to actually finish, something that looked unlikely.

Practice showed how close the Ferrari’s and Ford’s were with them sharing the top 4 places, the top 10 starting positions were;

1 – J. Surtees/ L. Bandini 2 – R. Ginther/ M. Gregory

Ferrari 330P (#0822) Ford GT40 (#GT103)

3:42:00 3:45:3

3 – P. Rodriguez/ S. Hudson 4 – P. Hill/ B. McLaren

Ferrari 330P (0810) Ford GT40 (#GT102)

3:45:5 3:45:9

5 – G. Hill/ J. Bonnier 6 – M. Parkes/ L. Scarfiotti

Ferrari 330P (#0818) Ferrari 275P (#0820)

3:47:2 3:49:0

7 – J. Guichet/ N. Vaccarella 8 – D. Piper/ J. Rindt

Ferrari 275P (#0816) Ferrari 250LM (#5909)

3:51:0 3:53:9

9 – R. Attwood/ J. Schlesser 10 – D. Gurney/ B. Bondurant

Ford GT40 (#GT104) Shelby Daytona (#CSX2299)

3:55:4 3:56:1

The race started at 4PM on the 21st in cold but dry conditions with the Ferraris jumping into the lead after the usual “Le Mans” start. This only lasted half a lap with Baghetti stopping out on the circuit with a badly damaged clutch, taking over an hour to get going again. Other first lap incidents were Piper retiring the 250LM and Dumay spinning and surviving in the other 250LM. During the second lap Ginther in the GT40 managed to gain the lead, however the other two weren’t fairing so well with Attwood well down the field and Hill having numerous problems with misfiring.

Parkes became the second Ferrari P – car driver to suffer problems with engine problems, and later retired with a broken clutch. Ginther led comfortably and only Rodriguez in the NART entered 330P could keep up. A bungled first pit stop put Gregory (in for Ginther) behind Surtees, Rodriguez retiring with a broken driveshaft. At around 8PM however, tragedy struck with first Attwood/ Schlesser’s entry catching fire and then 5 laps later Ginther/ Gregory out with a broken gearbox. This left Hill/ McLaren in 23rd but running well. Similarly the Trintignant/ Simon Maserati was running very well only giving up the ghost 9 hours into the race. Unfortunately, during the night hours Peter Bolton in the Cobra spun and was collected by the Ferrari of Baghetti causing the Ferrari to slide off track near Maison Blanche killing three spectators in a out – of – bounds area. At midnight Surtees/ Bandini lead from Guichet/ Vaccarella, Hill/ Bonnier, Gurney/ Bondurant in the Daytona, Barth/ Linge and Hill/ McLaren in the GT40 holding down 6th. Two hours later Bonnier had a throttle cable break in the 2nd place P-car moving Hill/ McLaren up to 5th.

A strange accident happened during the very early morning when Marnat’s spitfire had an issue with fumes from the exhaust entering the cockpit making the driver disorientated and eventually crashing. The GT40 of Hill/ McLaren kept moving up until it was in 4th at 5AM looking at a remarkable result before the inevitable struck and it retired with a broken gearbox at 5.30AM. This left the Ferrari of Guichet/ Vaccarella in the lead from Hill/ Bonnier, Surtees/ Bandini and Gurney/ Bondurant, who had a remarkable run in the big Shelby Coupe.

The Rheims (Reims) 12 Hours race on the 5th of July 1964 was held mainly for the GT cars, with very few Prototype entries, Ferrari SPA didn’t enter any vehicles, leaving the star drivers to drive for privateer teams. There were still 9 F-cars with 4 64 spec GTO’s, 2 standard GTO’s and 2 of the new 250 Le Mans entered. Against this Ford entries were the 3 GT40’s as seen at Le Mans, and 2 Shelby Daytona Coupe’s. Flavour was provided for by several French entries such as the Alpine – Renault’s and 2 Lightweight Jaguar E- Types, no less than 9 904GTS Porsche’, the Maserati 151/1 and the Iso Rivolta. As expected the GT40’s, Shelby’s and Ferrari’s were at the pointy end of the grid.

The Reims race was always unusual in that it started at midnight and finished at noon, and in 1964 began with a slipstreaming fight between Graham Hill and John Surtees in 250 Le Mans and Ginthers GT40, with the lead changing each lap. Every other entry had settled down into a steady rhythm However after just 40 minutes the first GT40 retirement occurred with Ginther having gearbox failure, Attwood took over in third, albeit a very distant third. Dawn saw the other GT40’s retire with first Schlesser having an oil leak followed quickly by Phil Hill’s engine exploding.

This left the two 250 Le Mans with a commanding lead over the Parkes/ Scarfiotti GTO/64, and still fighting away on the lead lap. This was only changed when, with 15 minutes to go, Surtees first ran out of brakes and had a flat tyre dropping him one lap behind Hill and Bonniers victorious entry. The two Shelby Daytona Coupe’s were again fast but fragile with the Ireland/ Neerspasch and Gurney/ Bondurant entries out with brokem gearboxes.

GT40

GT/102 – Phill Hill/ Bruce McLaren (FAV) – Retired (Gearbox)

GT/103 – Richie Ginther/ Maste Gregory (FAV) – Retired (Engine)

GT/105 – Richard Attwood/ Jo Schlesser (FAV) – Retired (Gearbox)

Result

Pos

Car #

Drivers

Car

Entrant

Laps

Grid

1

7

Graham Hill/Jo Bonnier

Ferrari 250LM [5907]

Maranello

296

4

2

8

John Surtees/Lorenzo Bandini

Ferrari 250LM [5909]

NART

295

1

3

25

Mike Parkes/Ludovico Scarfiotti

Ferrari 250 GTO 64 [4399]

Maranello

279

9

4

24

David Piper/Tony Maggs

Ferrari 250 GTO [4491]

David Piper

273

14

5

44

Andrea Vianini/Nasif Estefano

Porsche 904 GTS [078]

Andrea Vianini

273

22

6

42

Gerhard Koch/Gerhard Mitter

Porsche 904 GTS

Porsche

271

20

7

39

Ben Pon/Rob Slotemaker

Porsche 904 GTS

Racing Team Holland

270

25

8

16

Dick Protheroe/John Coundley

Jaguar E-type [EC1001]

Dick Protheroe

270

18

9

28

Lucien Bianchi/Pierre Dumay

Ferrari 250 GTO 64 [5575]

Equipe Nationale Belge

269

15

10

36

Robert Buchet/Guy Ligier

Porsche 904 GTS [021]

Auguste Veuillet

268

23

11

26

Pedro Rodriguez/Nino Vaccarella/Skip Hudson*

Ferrari 250 GTO 64 [5571]

NART

264

11

12

38

Herbert Müller/André Knörr

Porsche 904 GTS [079]

Scuderia Filipinetti

262

21

13

37

Annie Soisbault/Claude Dubois

Porsche 904 GTS [095]

Equipe National Belge

262

26

14

17

Peter Sutcliffe/William Bradley

Jaguar E-type [S850666]

Peter Sutcliffe

261

17

15

40

Henk van Zalinge/David van Lennep

Porsche 904 GTS

Racing Team Holland

260

18

16

43

Jacques Dewez/Jean Kerguen

Porsche 904 GTS [041]

Jacques Dewez

250

27

17

29

Chris Amon/Jackie Stewart/Ulf Norinder*

Ferrari 250 GTO [3445]

Ulf Norinder

248

24

18

51

Roger Delageneste/Henry Morrogh

Alpine M64 Renault [1711]

Automobiles Alpine

241

31

19

50

José Rosinski/Henri Grandsire

Alpine M64 Renault [1709]

Automobiles Alpine

239

30

20

49

Mauro Bianchi/Jean Vinatier

Alpine M64 Renault [1710]

Automobiles Alpine

218

29

DNF

27

Bob Grossman/Skip Hudson

Ferrari 250 GTO 64 [5573]

NART

16

DNF

9

Gerard Langlois von Ophem/Jean Blaton

Ferrari 250LM [5843]

Equipe National Belge

7

DNF

3

Maurice Trintignant/André Simon

Maserati Tipo 151/1 [002]

Maserati France

8

DNF

4

Bruce McLaren/Phil Hill

Ford GT40 [102]

Ford Motor Co.

3

DNF

14

Innes Ireland/Jochen Neerspasch

Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe [CSX2287]

SAI

10

DNF

6

Richard Attwood/Jo Schlesser

Ford GT40 [105]

Ford Motor Co.

6

DNF

52

Philippe Vidal/Jacques Maglia

Alpine M63 Renault [1708]

Alpine

32

DNF

54

Robert Bouharde/Jean Vinatier

René Bonnet Aérodjet

René Bonnet

35

DNF

60

Philippe Farjon/Serge Lelong

René Bonnet Djet Renault

René Bonnet

37

DNF

33

Edgar Barth/Colin Davis/Herbert Linge^

Porsche 904/8 [009]

Porsche

51

13

DNF

2

Pierre Noblet/Edgar Berney

Iso Rivolta

Auguste Veuillet

12

DNF

5

Richie Ginther/Masten Gregory

Ford GT40 [103]

Ford Motor Co.

2

DNF

15

Dan Gurney/Bob Bondurant^

Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe [CSX2299]

SAI

5

DNF

56

Jean-Francois Piot/Alain Bertaut^

Triumph Spitfire

Standard Triumph

36

DNF

41

Jo Siffert/Heinz Schiller^

Porsche 904 GTS

Heinz Schiller

19

DNF

53

Jean-Pierre Beltoise/Gérard Laureau^

René Bonnet Djet

René Bonnet

34

DNF

46

Bernard Collomb/André Wicky^

Lotus Elan

Wicky Racing Team

33

Post Reims/ Pre Nassau

The next major event was the Tourist Trophy held at Goodwood in the UK on the 29th August 1964 with a moderate entry of Prototype’s including two Ferrari’s a 250 LM for Piper and a 330P for Graham Hill. Primary competition was from two Shelby Daytona Coupe’s for Dan Gurney and Phil Hill, a Willment entered Daytona Coupe for Bob Olthoff, several GTO’s and unusually many Group 7 entries that are not normally allowed in WSC events. These included Lotus – Climax 19’s, Jim Clark’s Lotus – Ford 30, Brabham BT8 – Climax for Hulme and others and Bruce McLarens Cooper – Oldsmobile that took pole.

The early part of the race was purely between Clark and McLaren with Hulme in a very distant third. McLaren’s race ended with clutch issues and Clark looked like he would cruise home until his first pitstop where he couldn’t restart the car. Hulme also having major problems ignition problems, Clark eventually got going again, and the problem recurred causing a second much longer stop, leaving Graham Hill in the 330P in the lead from Piper in the 250 Le Mans. The Gurney Daytona Coupe had a comfortable win in GT over Ireland’s GTO ’64.

The Bridgehampton Double 500KM was held on the 20th of September 1964 and had a strong entry list of American exotica mixed with Ferraris and Shelby’s. The main contenders included Walt Hansgen’s Scarab – Chevrolet, Pedro Rodriguez’ NART Ferrari 275P, Scarfiotti’ NART 330P, and Shermon Decker in a Cooper Monaco – Ford. Further entries came from another 330P, 2 250 Le Mans, and no less than 10 Cobra’s, of which 5 were Shelby entries. The race was between Hansgen in the Scarab and everyone else, Hansgen having lapped everyone up to the third place Decker within the first third of the race before taking it easy and coasting to the win.

Rodriguez fought Decker for second until Decker slowed 10 laps from home and dropped out of contention. This left the finish order of Hansgen, Rodriguez, Grossman, Miles in the first Shelby Cobra and Fulp.

The last WSC race was the Paris 1000KM held on the 11th of October 1964 which saw a depleted entry of one Ronnie Hoare’s 330P for Graham Hill/ Jo Bonnier, with other fast entries coming from 4 250 Le Mans, 2 GTO’s, 3 GTO/64’s, the Iso Grifo and the usual fleet of 904’s. The race was between Graham Hill in the lead 330P and everyone else, with several 250 Le Mans leading the chasing bunch. Rain at the halfway mark lead to problems on the Monthlery banking non more worse off than Peter Lindner in the lightweight E – Type who spun coming off the banking crashing into thwe Patria Abarth, that was stopped in the pits, killing both drivers and three marshalls. The eventual result was Hill/ Bonnier, Rodriguez/ Schlesser – GTO/64, Barth/ Davis – 904/8, Maggs/ Piper – GTO, Bianchi/ van Ophem – GTO

29/11/1964 – Nassau Tourist Trophy

The fourth and last event for the GT40’s in 1964 was the Nassau TT, intended to show the world the speed and the ability of the GT40. The rather minor race turned into a disaster due to identical front suspension failures. This left the old enemy Chevrolet to win from several Fords and Shelbys.

GT40

GT/103 – Phil Hill (FAV) – Retired (Suspension)

GT/104 – Bruce McLaren (FAV) – Retired (Suspension) ?

Result

Pos

Car #

Drivers

Car

Entrant

Laps

1

82

Roger Penske

Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport (005)

Mecom Racing

23

2

3

Walt Hansgen

Ferrari 250LM [6047]

Mecom Racing

23

3

90

Bob Grossman

Ferrari 250LM (5909)

NA

23

4

92

Bob Johnson

Shelby Cobra (CSX2189)

NA

23

5

13

Tom Payne

Shelby Cobra (CSX2430)

Shelby

23

6

11

Pedro Rodriguez

Ferrari 250GTO/64 (5571)

NART

23

7

68

Jack Ryan

Porsche 904 GTS (043)

NA

22

8

70

Tom Fleming

Ferrari 250GTO (3767)

NART

21

9

199

Skip Scott

Ford Mustang

N/A

21

10

47

David Lane

Porsche 904 GTS (051)

NA

21

11

55

Lee Cutler

Porsche 904 GTS (086)

NA

21

12

14

Peter Gregg

Porsche 904 GTS [068]

Gregg

21

13

74

Don Sesslar

Sunbeam Tiger

NA

14

34

Peter Pulver

Lotus Elan

Duchess

15

26

Mike Kurkjian

Porsche 356 Abarth

NA

16

86

Art Swanson

Abarth – Simca 1300

NA

17

81

Jorge Torruellas

Porsche 356 Abarth

NA

18

136

K. Hall

Chevrolet Corvette

N/A

19

96

Richard Holquist

Abarth – Simca 1300

NA

20

84

William Haenelt

Alpine A110

NA

21

22

Layman

Fiat – Abarth

NA

DNF

98

Ken Miles

Shelby Cobra (CSX2129)

NA

23rd

3

Jack Saunders

Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport (003)

Mecom Racing

24th

37

Howard Hanna

Rene Bonnet Djet

NA

DNF

89

Hans Schenk

Shelby Cobra

NA

DNF

6

Phil Hill

Ford GT40 [103]

Ford Motor Co.

DNF

52

Ray Stoutenburg

Fiat Abarth

NA

DNF

87

John Norwood

Renault Dauphine

NA

DNF

007

Sydney Oakes

Sunbeam Tiger

NA

DNF

29

Anatoly Aruntunoff

Lancia Appia

NA

DNF

131

P. Dion

Morris Mini Cooper

NA

DNF

19

Dan Gerber

Shelby Cobra (CSX2138)

NA

DNF

18

Art Riley

Volvo P1800

NA

DNF

Ralph Noseda

Shelby Cobra (CSX2137)

NA

DNF

51

Ray Heppenstall

BMW Coupe

NA

DNF

77

Jody Porter

Abarth – Simca 1300

NA

DNF

61

Fred Ashplant

Lotus Elan

NA

DNF

83

Paul Richards

Alpine M63

NA

1964 – Less Racing, more development

At the end of 1964 it was clear that the Ford GT, now known as the GT40 had been rushed into competition with not nearly enough testing. The limitations of the design, especially the windtunnel design work had resulted in several unseen issues. Other unexpected issues were the continual unreliability of the Ford 256 Cui engine, the Ford 289 Cui engine being better suited to the job and the more problematic Colotti transmission which was not particularly fragile but didn’t like the wear and tear of Sports car racing.

The car was modified after its entry at the Le Mans trials with much work done to ensure stability and low drag. To this end a spoiler was fitted to the cars entered at the Nurburgring. The tail was subtly modified towards its final shape throughout the year.

A major change was the introduction of the 427 Cui idea, which Ford executives had considered from the get – go. While a reasonably simple idea of adding more power, the reality was somewhat different. Primarily, the development of this car could be said to have undermined the ability of FoMoCo to focus on the 289 Cui Mark I and although the 427 Cui Mark II showed promise it was going to require much development before any success would be attained.

The prototype Mark II’s GT/106 & GT/107 started a lengthy build process in July 1964 with both cars receiving their engines in early 1965, much of that will be in the 1965 chapter.

Ferrari was a deserved victor of every category over 2 Litres, winning the Division three GT and the Prototype titles. The Prototype was actually given to Porsche because Ferrari hadn’t contested the prototype category in all four races. Far from Ford being a force to be reckoned with at the end of 1964, they hadn’t finished a race, much less won one. Much more work was needed and 1965 was to prove they were at least heading in the right direction.

Mid way through 1964, Eric Broadley left FAV, apparently annoyed at the changes being made by Ford USA especially the move to build the cars from sheet steel rather than aluminium.

Status of cars at the end of 1964

GT/101 – Written Off

GT/102 – Written Off

GT/103 – FAV UK

GT/104 – FAV UK

GT/105 – FAV UK

GT/106 – Kar Kraft USA (Incomplete)

GT/107 – Kar Kraft USA (Incomplete)

1965 – Development continues

The beginning of 1965 bought numerous changes, not least the transfer of Roy Lunn back to Ford in Dearborn USA and on his advice the transfer of all racing activities to Shelby USA in Los Angeles and the new racing company, Kar Kraft. This new entity was to be run like FAV in the UK, semi autonomously, and they prepared all of the new cars to the specification that Shelby wanted. Shelby had received the three complete cars then in existence and had worked to modify them to his satisfaction, which was to prove eminently succesful.

The major modifications were made to the gearboxes with more than 20 changes and the ducting which was causing a loss of horsepower. Other changes involved the front bodywork and suspension mods.

In the UK, Wyer and his team were working on the first of the private cars for road and racing that were being built to a close approximation of the GT40 design that we know today, although the first few still had a variant of the original nose design. By the time of Le Mans there were five quite different cars being raced.

Firstly the usual prototypes, then there were the new Mark II GT40’s which had been built and tested and much modified with beefed up chassis, suspension and transmissions to handle the extra power. FAV in the UK had also experimented with Roadster spec. GT40’s and had built either five or six of these vehicles depending on who is asked. These cars had a different chassis to make up for the loss of tortional strength that comes with this format and while they were tried, they were quickly discarded in favour of the standard GT40 and GT40 Mark II.

Finally there were two cars at Le Mans that were fitted with an experimental racing 325 Cui engine. These were quickly re – engine after qualifying when faults were found with the engines. The 289 and 427 engines were reliable and powerful and the 325 Cui engine was never used again.

The Team

Teams

FAV – John Wyer (Aston Martin – 1959 Le Mans, Manager)

Filipinetti – Claude Sage

Ford France – Guy Ligier

Shelby – Carroll Shelby (Aston Martin – 1959 Le Mans winner)

Walker – Rob Walker

Drivers

Chris Amon (1966 Le Mans winner)

Richard Attwood (1970 Le Mans winner)

Bob Bondurant

Ronnie Bucknum

Richie Ginther

Masten Gregory (1965 Le Mans winner)

Phil Hill (1961 Formula 1 Champion, 1958, 1961 & 1962 Le Mans winner

Innes Ireland

Guy Ligier

Umberto Maglioli

Bruce McLaren (1966 Le Mans winner)

Ken Miles

Herbert Mueller

Lloyd Ruby

Roy Salvadori (1959 Le Mans winner)

Jo Schlesser

Louis Trintignant

John Whitmore

Status of cars extant in 1965 (Up to Le Mans)

GT/103 – Shelby

GT/104 – Shelby

GT/105 – Shelby

GT/106 (Mark II) – Shelby

GT/107 (Mark II) – Shelby

GT/108 – (Roadster) – Shelby

GT/109 – (Roadster) – Shelby

GT/110A – (Roadster) – McLaren racing

GT/110B – (Chassis only) – FAV (Incomplete)

GT/111 – (Roadster) – Shelby

GT/112 – (Roadster) – Shelby

#1000 – (Mark I) – FAV (Incomplete)

#1001 – (Mark I) – FAV

#1002 – (Mark I) – F. English Ltd.

#1003 – (Mark I) – Guy Ligier/ Ford France

#1004 – (Mark I) – Shelby

#1005 – (Mark I – 325 Cui) – Shelby

#1006 – (Mark I – 325 Cui) – Shelby

9th February 1965 – Daytona 2000KM

The first race of the 1965 calendar was the Daytona 2000KM held in the sunny Daytona Beach on the 9th of February. This race always saw interesting entries from very diverse teams with anything from works racers to home built specials entering and hoping to if not do well, at least finish. 2 GT40’s for Ken Miles/ Lloyd Ruby and Bob Bondurant/ Richie Ginther were entered by Shelby and were much improved versions of the 1964 types. Backing these were four Shelby entered Daytona Coupes and a Mustang GT350 entered by Holman & Moody and a very strange car a Lotus 19J – Ford. This was a very lightweight Lotus fitted with a Cobra spec. 289 Cui Ford engine.

Providing competition was the meek NART entry of a 330P2 for Surtees/ Rodriguez and both a 275P for Grossman/ Fulp and a 330P for Hansgen/ Piper. Unsurprisingly these entries filled the top 10, but perhaps surprisingly in 11th was the Plymouth Belvedere of Harvey/ Hutchinson. The grid shaped as;

1 – J. Surtees/ P. Rodriguez 2 – B. Bondurant/ R. Ginther

Ferrari 330P2 (#0838) Ford GT40 (#GT104)

2:00:6 2:01:8

3 – K. Miles/ L. Ruby 4 – W. Hansgen/ D. Piper

Ford GT40 (#GT103) Ferrari 330P (#0820)

2:03:00 2:03:8

5 –E. Leslie/ A. Grant 6 – R. Johnson/ T. Payne

Shelby Daytona (#CSX2300) Shelby Daytona (#CSX2601)

2:07:0 2:08:2

7 – J. Schlesser/ H. Keck/ R. Johnson 8 – R. Muther/ J. Timanus

Shelby Daytona (#CSX2299) Shelby Daytona (#CSX2602)

2:08:4 2:09:0

9 – B. Grossman/ W. Hansgen/ D. Piper 10 – D. Gurney/ J. Grant

Ferrari 275P (#0814) Lotus 19J (#966)

2:09:2 2:11:0

The race began with Surtees leading the first lap, with Gurney coming up through the field, taking the lead on the second lap. The Jaguar E- Type of Hull had its engine explode, and Hansgen in the 330P F-car ran over the wreckage destroying his rear end and having to retire.

Gurney, working as a rabbit to try and encourage Ferrari to chase, started to build up an enormous lead in the fast but fragile Lotus. Rodriguez had his turn at having a tyre blow and after running back to the pit to get a new part for the car continued but was so far behind as to be out of the race. The last remaining Ferrari of Hansgen/ Piper was up to third place but had its clutch fail. This left the little Lotus running like a train in front of the two GT40’s and the Daytona Coupe’s with no sign of any fragility. As expected Shelby called the Lotus in for a pit stop to find that a mysterious Piston failure had occurred and retired the car, allowing the GT40’s into an unassailable lead.

Bondurant/ Ginther had ignition issues causing them to lose 20 minutes in the pits, leaving Miles/ Ruby to cruise to a 5 lap win over Schlesser/ Keck followed by Bondurant/ Ginther, Muther/ Timanus and Kolb/ Heftler. Ford must have been justifiably happy that having had four failures from four races entered, they not only finally finished a race but actually won it.

Sebring was next on the calendar with not insignificant amounts of controversy as the race organisers decided to allow Group 7 cars to enter. This lead to Ferrari boycotting the race, leaving the privateers to enter cars, 275P’s were entered by Kleiner Racing for Maglioli/ Baghetti, Hugus had for Hugus/ O’Brien and Fong for Mairese/ Bianchi, 330P’s were entered by Fulp Kolb/ Fulp, Mecum for Rodriguez/ Graham Hill and McKelvy for Grossman/ Hudson. These were backed by two 250 Le Mans entered by David Piper for Piper/ Maggs and John Mecom for Hansgen/ Donohue. Shelby Ford entries were the same two vehicles as Daytona GT/103 being driven by Miles/ McLaren and GT/104 for Ginther/ Phil Hill. Backing these were four Daytona Coupe’s and the Lotus 19J. Other significant entries were Jim Hall’s Chaparral 2A’s for Hall/ Sharp and Hissom/ Jennings, John Mecom’s entry of a Lola T70 for Cannon/ Saunders and two Corvette Grand Sports.

Qualifying was predictable with the Chaparral’s much faster than anything else, then the two GT40’s, and the rest, the grid shaped up as;

1 – J. Hall/ H. Sharp 2 – R. Hissom/ B. Jennings

Chaparral 2A (#001) Chaparral 2A (#002)

3 – K. Miles/ B. McLaren 4 – R. Ginther/ P. Hill

Ford GT40 (#GT103) Ford GT40 (#GT104)

5 – D. Gurney/ J. Grant 6 – J. Cannon/ J. Saunders

Lotus 19J (#966) Lola T70 (#SL70/3)

7 – P. Rodriguez/ G. Hill 8 – B. Grossman/ S. Hudson

Ferrari 330P (#0820) Ferrari 330P (#0810)

9 – W. Hansgen/ M. Donohue 10 – D. Piper/ T. Maggs

Ferrari 250LM (#6047) Ferrari 250LM (#5897)

The race started in an extreme Florida heatwave with two Cobra’s suffering from vapour lock on the first lap. The Shelby Lotus 19 was again fast but this time the fragility was evident with retirement early in the race due to fuel feed problems, the Ginther GT40 retired with suspension problems that had been evident from the start. The two Chaparrals were allowed to create a major lead over the rest of the field. The second Chaparral of Hissom/ Jennings quickly suffered from electrical problems dropping them out of the running but the lead Hall/ Sharp car was simply unmatchable, gaining a laps advantage over the rest of the field every hour.

The best of the rest was the Ferrari 330P of Rodriguez/ Graham Hill in second with a cautious Miles/ McLaren GT40 in third. The Cannon/ Saunders Lola struggled with oil cooler issues dropping back and retiring on lap 55. The heat was so bad that drivers started literally dropping with some needing to be lifted out of their cars. The other key Ferraris were also wilting with many becoming frequent pit visitors for issues, and others dropping out, Kolb/ Fulp Retiring with a broken transmission, Hansgen/ Donohue with a broken clutch, Piper/ Maggs with fouled plugs, although able to continue and finish strongly.

The forecasted rain that had been predicted all race finally arrived at 5PM and was less a shower and more a monsoon, with up to three feet of standing water along the front straight and in the pits. The worst affected was the Phil Hill Cobra Daytona that had so much water inside it the crew had to punch holes in the floor to allow the car to drain!. The leading cars had to slow to as little as 10MPH to finish each lap with only the watertight Porsches remaining unharmed. Fortunately the rain only lasted for 40 minutes and quickly cleared leaving Hall/ Sharp still leading by as much as 9 laps over the Miles/ McLaren Ford GT40. The pace was slowed somewhat and Hall/ Sharp still had a four lap advantage at the finish, with Piper/ Maggs 3rd in the 250 Le Mans, Bondurant/ Schlesser 4th and Underwood/ Klass a fantastic 5th in the little 2 litre Porsche 904.

The third round of the championship, the Monza 1000KM was held on the 25th of April and used the combined banking and Grand Prix circuit for the first time. The Ferrari entry comprised of works 275P2 for Parkes/ Guichet and 330P2 for Surtees/ Scarfiotti and Bandini/ Vaccarella and a new 1.6 Litre V6 166P (0834) for Baghetti/ Biscaldi, Filipinetti entered 365P2 Mueller/ Spychinger, Maranello Concessionaires entered 330P for Jo Bonnier/ David Piper and 250LM for Ireland/ Salmon, Jacques Swaters 250LM’s for Annie Soisbault/ Gerard Langlois von Ophem and Willy Mairesse/ Lucien Bianchi ans Sant Ambroeus 250LM for Sigala/ Taramazzo.

Shelby entered two GT40’s for McLaren/ Miles and Amon/ Maglioli, other entries included two of the Iso Grifo A3C, the new Alfa TZ2, two Alan Mann Racing entered Shelby Daytona Coupe’s and some quick Porsche 904GTS. Practice showed the new Ferrari’s to be super quick with the best Ford being 6 seconds slower than the quickest Ferrari.

Starting grid

1 – M. Parkes/ J. Guichet 2 – J. Surtees/ L. Scarfiotti

Ferrari 275P2 (#0836) Ferrari 330P2 (#0828)

2:46:9 2:47:0

3 – L. Bandini/ N. Vaccarella 4 – J. Bonnier/ D. Piper

Ferrari 330P (#0822)Ferrari 330P (#0818)

2:47:1 2:51:2

5 – B. McLaren/ K. Miles6 – H. Mueller/ T. Spychinger

Ford GT40 (#GT103) Ferrari 365P2 (#0824)

2:53:5 2:54:8

7 – W. Mairesse/ L. Bianchi 8 – C. Amon/ U. Maglioli

Ferrari 250LM (#6023) Ford GT40 (#GT104)

2:55:3 2:55:4

9 – B. Bondurant/ A. Grant 10 – O. Sigala/ L. Taramazzo

Shelby Daytona (#CSX2601) Ferrari 250LM (#6173)

2:57:2 2:58:9

The race began with the retirement of the 166P Ferrari on the first lap with engine trouble and McLaren spinning the GT40, fortunately without damaging the car and Bonnier suffering a flat tyre in the 330P. Bandini suffered suspension failure on the 330P2 and Gosselin’s & Soisbault’s 250LM’s were out with mechanical dramas. After all of this Surtees settled into a lead over Parkes, Mueller, McLaren, Amon, Sigala and Ireland. Unfortunately Spychinger had a fatal accident on lap 33 when he had brake failure entering the Parabolica curve.

Surtees had tyre problems dropping him back down the field, but Scarfiotti soon charged back into second place. Amon/ Maglioli had managed to overtake McLaren/ Miles but at the three quarter mark dropped back and then retired with a broken suspension allowed McLaren/ Miles to cruise to a safe thired, albeit 4 laps behind the second placed Ferrari.

GT40

GT/103 – McLaren/ Miles (Shelby) – 3rd

GT/104 – Amon/ Maglioli (Shelby) – Retired (Suspension)

Result

#

Drivers

Car

Entrant

Laps

Grid

1

63

Mike Parkes/Jean Guichet

Ferrari 275P2 [0836]

Ferrari SEFAC

100

1

2

60

John Surtees/Ludovico Scarfiotti

Ferrari 330P2 [0828]

Ferrari SEFAC

100

2

3

69

Bruce McLaren/Ken Miles

Ford GT40 [103]

SAI

96

5

4

36

Ben Pon/Rob Slotemaker

Porsche 904 GTS

Racing Team Holland

92

19

5

64

Pierre Noblet/Mario Casoni

Iso Grifo A3C

Giotto Bizzarini

92

14

6

76

Innes Ireland/Mike Salmon

Ferrari 250LM [5907]

Maranello C

91

11

7

25

Roberto Bussinello/Andrea de Adamich

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2

Autodelta

90

16

8

48

Bob Bondurant/Allen Grant

Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe [CSX2601]

A. Mann

89

9

9

49

Jack Sears/John Whitmore

Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe [CSX2602]

A. Mann

89

13

10

71

Oddone Sigala/Luigi Taramazzo

Ferrari 250LM [6173]

Scuderia Ambroeus

89

10

11

42

Vincenzo Nember/Marino Bonomi

Ferrari 250 GTO 64 [4675]

Vincenzo Nember

88

17

12

51

John Sparrow/Neil Dangerfield/Christopher McLaren*

Shelby Cobra [CSX2301]

Radford Racing

87

23

13

65

Antonio Finiguerra/Régis Fraissinet

Iso Grifo A3C

Giotto Bizzarini

87

20

14

29

Guido Rava/”Kim”

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Scuderia Ambroeus

86

27

15

30

Rinaldo Parmigiani/Bruno Deserti

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Scuderia Ambroeus

86

29

16

27

Dmitri Nabokov/Corrado Manfredini

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Scuderia Ambroeus

86

28

17

31

Salvatore Panepinto/Carlo Facetti/Giuseppe Parla*

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Salvatore Panepinto

83

24

NRF

68

Chris Amon/Umberto Maglioli/Ken Miles*

Ford GT40 [104]

SAI

76

8

18

57

Alessandro Arcioni/Giacomo Russo

Alfa Romeo GTA

Autodelta

70

32

DNF

35

Jacques Calderari/Robert Calderari

Porsche 904 GTS

Scuderia Filipinetti

66

21

DNF

41

Armand Boller/Dieter Spoerry

Ferrari 250 GTO [3527]

Scuderia Filipinetti

62

22

DNF

26

Giancarlo Sala/Giorgio Pianta/Giacomo Sartorio*

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Scuderia Ambroeus

58

26

DNF

73

Willy Mairesse/Lucien Bianchi

Ferrari 250LM [6023]

E. Francorchamps

42

7

DNF

66

Herbert Müller/Tommy Spychinger

Ferrari 365P2 [0824]

Scuderia Filipinetti

33

6

DNF

54

Ernesto Brambilla/Luciano Selva/Giorgio Pianta*/Piero Corbellini*

Aguzzoli Condor Alfa Romeo

Sergio Aguzzoli

31

33

DNF

28

Alma Cacciandra/Alberto Della Beffa^

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Scuderia Ambroeus

24

34

DNF

56

Carlo Zuccoli/Teodoro Zeccoli^

Alfa Romeo GTA

Autodelta

19

30

DNF

46

Maurice Caillet/André Wicky^

Jaguar E-type

André Wicky

18

31

DNF

72

Annie Soisbault/Gerard Langlois von Ophem^

Ferrari 250LM [5843]

E. Francorchamps

17

15

DNF

62

Lorenzo Bandini/Nino Vaccarella^

Ferrari 330P2

SpA Ferrari SEFAC

9

3

DNF

67

Jo Bonnier/David Piper^

Ferrari 330P [0818]

Maranello C

9

4

DNF

77

Gustave Gosselin/Jean-Claude Franck^

Ferrari 250LM [6313]

Georges Marquet

4

18

DNF

53

Giancarlo Baghetti/Giampiero Biscaldi^

Ferrari Dino 166P [0834]

SpA Ferrari SEFAC

1

12

9th May 1965 – Targa Florio

The Targa Florio, the fourth round of the championship that Ford entered, was held on the usual twisty 44 mile (72KM) long circuit, albeit known as the Madonie short circuit that flowed around Sicily with each car completing 10 laps. 1965 presented a three way fight with strong entries from Ferrari and Porsche meeting a token entry by FAV of GT/111 for Bondurant/ Whitmore, Ferrari had 275P2’s for Vaccarella/ Bandini, Guichet/ Baghetti and Scarfiotti/ Parkes backed by 5 privately entered 250 Le Mans. Porsche had their strongest entry of the year with 904/8’s for Davis/ Mitter and Bonnier/ Hill, 904/6 for Maglioli/ Linge and a 904GTS for Pucci Klass. As usual there were practice days but no qualifying, with each car starting rally style at a specific time, the winner being the fastest to cover the 10 laps.

The opening lap saw Vaccarella post a new fastest time opening up a 30 second gap to the second placed Scarfiotti, Guichet in third and the GT40 in forth with Bonnier in 5th. Scarfiotti had a minor accident that put his 275P2 out of the race on lap 2. On lap 3 Whitmore in the GT40 lost a wheel and the Sicilian crowd around the car stole parts from the car as souvenir’s, by the time he got going again it had taken several minutes. Eventually the car had fuel pump problems before a tired Bondurant managed to crash the car on lap 8 putting it out.

Baghetti retired from second on lap 6 leaving Vaccarella/ Bandini with a comfortable lead over Graham Hill whos challenge was halted when a precautionary pit stop put him down to 4th. This allowed the patient Davis/ Mitter 904/8 up to 2nd.

GT40

#GT/111 – Whitmore/ Bondurant (FAV) – Retired (Crash)

Result

#

Drivers

Car

Entrant

Laps

1

198

Nino Vaccarella/Lorenzo Bandini

Ferrari 275P2 (0828)

SpA Ferrari SEFAC

10

2

182

Colin Davis/Gerhard Mitter/Jo Bonnier^/Graham Hill^

Porsche 904/8 Bergspyder [906-007]

Porsche System Engineering

10

3

176

Umberto Maglioli/Herbert Linge

Porsche 904/6 [906-001]

Porsche System Engineering

10

4

174

Jo Bonnier/Graham Hill/Colin Davis^/Gerhard Mitter^

Porsche 904/8 Coupe [009]

Porsche System Engineering

10

5

94

Antonio Pucci/Günther Klass

Porsche 904 GTS [005]

Porsche

10

6

152

Hans Herrmann/Leo Cella

Abarth 1600 OT Spyder

Abarth & Cie

10

7

70

Lucien Bianchi/Jean Rolland

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Autodelta SpA

10

8

132

Luigi Taramazzo/Oddone Sigala

Ferrari 250LM [6173]

Scuderia St. Ambroeus

10

9

58

Giuseppe Sirugo/Vincenzo Arena

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Etna

10

10

26

Salvatore Calascibetta/Giuseppe Virgilio

Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero

Abarth & Cie

10

11

44

Paddy Hopkirk/Andrew Hedges

MG Midget

BMC

10

12

118

Clemente Ravetto/Gaetano Starrabba

Ferrari 250 GTO/64 [4091]

Pegaso

10

13

22

Jean Vinatier/Roger Delageneste

Alpine A110 Renault

Alpine

10

14

136

Antonio Nicodemi/Francesco Lessona

Ferrari 250LM [5891]

Antonio Nicodemi

10

15

154

Rauno Aaltonen/Clive Baker

Austin-Healey Sprite

British Motor Co.

9

16

192

Peter Harper/Rupert Jones

Sunbeam Tiger Ford

Vita Foam

9

17

54

Girolama Capra/Maurizio Pinchetti

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Sant Ambroeus

9

18

162

Giorgio Pianta/Giorgio Bassi

ASA RB613

Sant Ambroeus

9

19

178

Marco Crosina/Claudio Maglioli

Lancia Flavia Zagato

HF Squadra Corse

9

20

24

Pietro Laureati/Carlo Fabri

Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero

Sagittario

9

21

108

Paul Hawkins/Timo Mäkinen

Austin-Healey 3000 Hardtop

British Motor Co.

9

22

12

Alfonso Merendino/Emanuele Trapani

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ

Alfonso Merendino

9

23

158

“Kim”/Giuseppe Bardini

ASA RB613

Sant Ambroeus

9

24

56

Paolo Gargano/Ludovico Denza

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Apulia

9

NC

184

Franco Tagliavia/Silvestre Semilia

Ferrari 500 TRC

Pegaso

9

25

60

Giorgio Benini/G. Frola

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Apulia

9

26

34

Vincenzo Messina/Gianni Carpinteri

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Aretusa

9

27

2

Joseph Thomas/Claude Sage/André Guilhaudin^

Alpine A110 Renault

Alpine

9

28

48

Vittorio Orlando/Emanuele Benedetto

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ

“The Tortoise”

9

29

14

Pietro Lo Piccolo/Salvatore Sutera

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Pegaso

9

30

112

Luigi Mosca/Tullio Sergio Marchesi

Ferrari 250 GTO [3647]

A Bossa

9

NRF

138

Sergio Bettoja/Andrea de Adamich/Mario Casoni

Ferrari 250LM [5903]

Jolly Club

8

NRF

194

Bob Bondurant/John Whitmore

Ford GT40 Roadster [111]

FAV

8

NC

106

Mario Raimondo/Gaetano Lo Jacono

Lancia Flaminia

Pegaso

8

NC

196

Giampiero Biscaldi/Bruno Deserti

Ferrari 275 GTB [6885]

SpA Ferrari SEFAC

8

NRF

116

Robert Blouin/Jean-Claude Sauer

Ferrari 250 GT Lusso [4965]

“Bouchon”

7

DNF

204

Jean Guichet/Giancarlo Baghetti

Ferrari 275P2 [0832]

SpA Ferrari SEFAC

6

DNF

64

Roberto Bussinello/Nino Todaro

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2

Autodelta SpA

6

DNF

28

Angelo Giliberti/André Knörr

Abarth-Simca 1300 [0042]

Abarth & Cie

6

DNF

4

Antonio Petruzzi/Antonio Porro

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ

Antonio Petruzzi

6

DNF

30

Alfio Gamberto/Angelo Bonaccorsi

Abarth-Simca 1300

Etna

5

DNF

16

Francesco Santoro/Vincenzo Mirto Randazzo

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ

Pegaso

5

DNF

114

Ignazio Capuano/Ferdinando Latteri

Ferrari 250 GTO [3765LM]

Pegaso

5

DNF

36

Mauro Battista/Alfio Monaco

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ

Etna

5

DNF

164

Mauro Bianchi/Henri Grandsire

Alpine M65 Renault [1718]

Alpine

4

DNF

166

Alessandro Federico/Mario Cabral

Alfa Romeo GTA

Autodelta SpA

4

DNF

72

Salvatore Panepinto/Giuseppe Parla

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Salvatore Panepinto

4

DNF

20

Guido Garufi/Antonio di Salvo

Abarth-Simca 1300

Guido Garufi

4

DNF

140

Cesare Toppetti/Maurizio Grana

Ferrari 250LM [5995]

Cesare Toppetti

4

DNF

202

Ludovico Scarfiotti/Mike Parkes^

Ferrari 275P2 (0830)

SpA Ferrari SEFAC

2

DNF

52

Carlo Zuccoli/Teodoro Zeccoli^

Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ

Autodelta SpA

2

DNF

96

Robert Ennis/Arthur W. Swanson^

Abarth-Simca 2000 GT

Arthur W. Swanson

2

DNF

102

Michel de Bourbon-Parme/Claude Bourillot^

Ferrari 250 GTO [3909]

Scuderia Filipinetti

2

DNF

42

Franco Lisitano/Domenico Patti^

Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS

Franco Lisitano

2

DNF

46

Herbert Demetz/Anzio Zucchi^

Abarth-Simca 1300

Abarth & Cie

1

DNF

10

“Bit”/Giuseppe Garofalo^

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Pegaso

1

DNF

40

Giuseppe Asciutto/Antonio Gagliardo^

Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Giuseppe Asciutto

1

DNF

6

Jacques Cheinisse/Jean-Pierre Hanrioud^

Alpine A110 Renault

Alpine

0

DNF

82

Giancarlo Maestrini/Luigi Rinaldi

Porsche 904 GTS

Giancarlo Maestrini

0

Spa 500KM

This years race was mainly populated by GT cars with very few Prototype’s in attendance, the only P+2000 entries a lone 275 GTC, an Iso Grifo A3C, 4 250LM’s and the Maranello Concessionaires 330P which as expected took pole by nearly 5 seconds from one of the two Cobra Daytona Coupe’s entered. The early laps were fought by Mairesse in a 250LM, Parkes in the big 330P and Whitmore in the Daytona Coupe, until Parkes put on a charge and pulled away at will.

Whitmore was attempting to lap a back marker when it moved over causing him to crash and necessitating a lenthy pitsop and then Bondurant had engine issues slowing him considerably. Parkes in the big Ferrari had engine issues on lap 10 that caused him to drop right down the field, eventually finishing 9th. Eventually both Daytona Coupe’s got back up to speed, making it up to 5th & 6th before Whitmore’s again suffered mechanical failure, dropping out with a broken gearbox. The race was marred by the death of Tony Hedgebourne in an Alfa TZ at half distance.

With all of the drama Willy Mairesse enjoyed a safe and satisfying win, Piper in another 250LM 2nd, and an amateur, Ben Pons, had a miraculous 3rd only 1 minute behind Piper in a 904GTS.

23rd May 1965 – Nurburgring 1000KM

The Nurburgring 1000KM held on the 23rd of May saw strong entries from the three main race teams with Ford entries by Shelby for Phil Hill/ McLaren and Amon/ Bucknum backed by FAV’s Roadster for Attwood/ Whitmore and Ford France’s entry for Trintignant/ Ligier. Ferrari’s entries were a 275P2 for Parkes/ Guichet and a 330P2 for Surtees/ Scarfiotti with a 166P for Bandini/ Vaccarella, all backed by Ronnie Hoare’s 275P2 for Graham Hill/ Stewart and four 250 Le Mans. Porsche had a 904/8 for Bonnier/ Rindt and three 904/6s for Maglioli/ Linge, Noecker/ Klass and Mitter/ Davis. Practice showed the Ferrari’s to be quicker than the Ford’s but there was still hope with Hill/ McLaren only 6 seconds behind Surtees/ Scarfiotti.

The race began with the Attwood and Trintignant GT40’s unable to start leaving them at the back of the field. The first lap being Surtees – Phil Hill – Graham Hill – Amon – Parkes. This lasted until lap 6 when Phil Hill had a half shalf break, and then on lap 7 Amon was called into pit but missed the signal and ran out of fuel out on the track eventually pushing the car back to the pits, although continuing with McLaren and Phil Hill taking over. Graham Hill’s Ferrari retired with electrical problems.

All of this left Surtees with an enormous lead over the second placed Parkes. The two Fords that were delayed at the start were back in the race and making their way through the field. Trintignant’s mount suffered from the Motor mount breaking and Attwood/ Whitmore suffered similar issues putting both cars out. This left the Amon/ McLaren/ Phil Hill GT40 in 8th but a lap down, behind the 904/6’s and the game 166P, with only the 904/8 and the two Ferrari’s on the lead lap.

Ford with 6 GT40’s entered must have felt confident of success especially with two of the new very powerful Mark II models. The April test days showed that Ford were competitive but still someway off the pace of the Ferrari prototypes, the best time being sixth. Drama at the test days occurred when Lloyd Casner crashed the Maserati Coupe with fatal consequences. Practice had Ford spending much of qualifying changing suspension settings and other details before Phil Hill set a blistering lap to take pole with a time of 3:33:0, the325 cui Walker entry coming in 3rd and McLaren/ Miles 4th although engine trouble caused the 325 Cui entrants to replace the prototype 325 Cui engines with the reliable 289 Cui for the race. Other entries included the Rover – BRM turbine, the Maserati Tipo 65 and the new Elva GT160.

Grid Top 10

1 – C. Amon/ P. Hill 2 – J. Surtees/ L. Scarfiotti

Ford GT40 Mk2 (107) Ferrari 320P2 (0828)

3:33:0 3:38:1

3 – B. Bondurant/ U. Maglioli 4 – B. McLaren/ K. Miles

Ford GT40 325 Cui (1004) Ford GT40 Mk2 (106)

3:38:7 3:38:9

5 – R. Bucknum/ H. Mueller 6 – P. Rodriguez/ N. Vaccarella

Ford GT40 325 Cui (1005) Ferrari 365P2 (0838)

3:39:2 3:41:0

7 – J. Guchet/ M. Parkes 8 – L. Bandini/ G. Biscaldi

Ferrari 330P2 (0836) Ferrari 275P2 (0832)

3:41:7 3:42:5

9 – J. Bonnier/ D. Piper 10 – I. Ireland/ J. Whitmore

Ferrari 365P2 (0826) Ford GT40 (1006)

3:43:00 3:43:00

The first lap was led by the GT40’s, with only the big Maserati for company, although that entry only lasted three laps not surprising since the car had only been built in the previous 5 weeks, Surtees having had a terrible start was scything through the pack and soon joined the lead bunch. McLaren pulled out a substantial lead over the Guichet Ferrari, although there were already signs of Ford fragility with the Ford France entry was out on lap 11 with gearbox failure. Ken Miles took over the lead Ford, now with three Ferraris on its tail and Ireland/ Whitmore in fifth. Phil Hill was in the pits with the first of many stops to try and fix transmission issues.

The Rover – BRM was following a very steady but slow pace, languishing in 30th and eventually finishing 10th. During the early evening two more GT40’s retired with first Bucknum/ Mueller and then Bondurant/ Maglioli going out with engine and gearbox failure respectively. By 7PM the McLaren/ Miles entry was also out with a broken gearbox while the Phil Hill car seemed to finally be running well setting the fastest lap of the race. This wasn’t to last with the car retiring on lap 89 with what else but a broken gearbox. The FAV entry had also retired on lap 72 with overheating thus leaving only the Cobra Daytona’s still running.

The Ford failures left Ferrari with a solid 1st thru 6th until brake and other probklems started to first slow and then cause retirements. Even the usually reliable Daytona Cobra’s started to fall by the wayside, first Gurney/ Grant slowing and pitting with falling oil pressure but managing to continue and three other entries going out with engine failure. Things settled somewhat until the late morning when first the works 275P2 of Bandini/ Biscaldi went out withengine failure and then the Surtees/ Scarfiotti car munched its gearbox. All of the attrition left the Dumay/ Gosselin 250LM in the lead with the Rindt/ Gregory car 3rd, with Parkes/ Guichet’s 330P2 seperating them. When Guichet/ Parkes had gearbox failure near the end of the race it became a “two horse” race.

Dumay had a tyre explosion in his Belgian entered 250LM and lost 5 laps getting the car repaired dropping them behind the NART Ferrari. This left the two Ferrari’s comfortably leading from the 275GTC, Linge/ Nocker in a 904/6 and Koch/ Fischhaber in the little 904GTS.

The Reims 12 Hours, held on the 3rd & 4th of July was a Ferrari benefit with entries 365P2’s by NART and Maranello Concessionaires, a 330P for Maranello Concessionaires and 4 250 LM. Only s Shelby Daytona Coupe’s were expected to put up a fight. The race started at 11PM rather than the usual midnight with Graham Hill taking a sizable lead and behind him, Surtees and Rodriguez in 365P2’s proceeded to slipstream down the long straights thus pulling away from Piper & Mairesse in 250LM’s.

The Willment Daytona Coupe’s soon retired after an electrical fault, and the Roadriguez/ Guichet car broke its clutch necessitating a 20 minute rebuild, while Surtees/ Parkes had a small fire after a rocker arm failed. Later the Hill/ Bonnier 330P had its transmission destroy itself, becoming one of the few retirements. The result was Rodriguez/ Guichet in NART’s 365P2, Surtees/ Parkes Maranello 365P2, Mairesse/ Blaton 250LM, Piper/ Attwood 250LM, Bondurant/ Schlesser Shelby Cobra Daytona.

Bridgehampton Double 500

The last race of the 1965 season was the Brdigehampton Double 500 held on the 19th of September 1965 and had the usual array of interesting American vehicles including a few debutantes. Hansgen in a Mecom entered Lola T70, Fulp in his own T70, Hap Sharp in a Chaparral 2A, Wintersteen in a McLaren M1A and various random cars such as Genie’s, Lotus’s, 427 Cui Cobra’s and a Malibu Special. Against this was a fairly strong NART Ferrari entry of a 275GTC, a 365P2 for Rodriguez, 275P for Mario Andretti, making his debut in this race and a couple of privately entered Ferrari’s including a 330P and a 250LM.

The race was expected to be a walkover for Hansgen since he was 2 seconds a lap quicker than anyone else. Unfortunately nobody told either Rodriguez or Sharp and all three swapped the lead over the early laps. Unfortunately Hansgen suffered a rear suspension failure allowing the other two to simply dominate the race along with Fulp who’s Lola kept going better and better, until Fulp crashed 2/3rds of the way through the race. Sharp eventually cruised to a two lap win over Rodriguez, with Skip Scott in the big Cobra third.

1965 – The year that wasn’t.

For a season that started with such promise, the Daytona win, it was pretty depressing and Ford must have questioning their will to continue. Even Porsche, then only racing 2 litre cars, had managed to take second place. Major failings must be put at the lack of a consistent testing program and the splittling of energies between all of the different variants. It is clear that if all of the Ford groups had concentrated on the GT40 and finished developing it before moving onto work on the Mark II success would have come much sooner.

Suggestions have been made that Ford were prepared to pull the plug and look elsewhere after Le Mans 1965, but no concerete evidence of this has come to light. At the end of the year, Ferrari were deserved champions with wins at Monza, Targa, Nurburgring, Le Mans and Reims. Chaparral did well to win at Sebring and Bridgehampton and even Brabham managed to win the semi – official Tourist Trophy.

In GT racing Ford and Shelby could be proud of having beaten the previously invincible Ferraris. The Daytona Coupes had proven to be all conquering in the GT classes at most rounds.

FAV in the UK had produced 18 cars by the end of 1965 and Shelby had received chassis up to #1032 that they began to build to the 1966 specifications.